Informer: HIV, hepatitis B virus not transmitted by saliva

Is it possible to catch hepatitis or AIDS from kissing a person who has it or drinking after them? What kind of serious diseases can you get from kissing or drinking after a person?

Both HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and the hepatitis B virus — which is more infectious than HIV — move from one person
to another via blood, semen and vaginal fluids, not saliva.

Neither a casual kiss nor drinking
after an infected person is likely to result in transmission of either
virus, but deep,
open-mouth kissing between an infected person and an uninfected
person — both of whom have cuts or open sores in their mouths
— could lead to infection, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and other health agencies.

“No one has ever gotten HIV through
casual kissing, such as between parents and children. It is possible,
but extremely unlikely,
for HIV to be passed during ‘deep kissing,’ ” reads the website of
the New York state health department.

“There has been just one reported case
of this kind: a woman became infected through deep kissing with a man
with AIDS whose
gums often bled after brushing and flossing his teeth; after this
activity, the couple often engaged in deep kissing and protected
sex. … Both the man and the woman had gum disease that may also
have contributed to the woman becoming infected. It is important
to note that in this situation, HIV is not passed through saliva,
but rather through direct blood-to-blood contact.”

How the viruses that cause other forms of hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, are transmitted, according to the CDC’s
website:

Hepatitis A
— ingesting fecal matter, “even in microscopic amounts,” via “close
person-to-person contact with an infected person,” including
“when an infected person does not wash his or her hands properly
after going to the bathroom and touches other objects”; “sexual
contact with an infected person”; “ingestion of contaminated food
or drinks.”

Hepatitis D — transmitted via infected blood. “HDV is an incomplete virus that requires the helper function of HBV to replicate and only
occurs among people who are infected with the Hepatitis B virus,” reads the CDC’s website.

Hepatitis E
— rare in the United States. “Hepatitis E virus is usually spread by
the fecal-oral route. The most common source of infection
is fecally contaminated drinking water,” reads the CDC site. “In
developed countries sporadic outbreaks have occurred following
consumption of uncooked/undercooked pork or deer meat. Consumption
of shellfish was a risk factor in a recently described
outbreak.”

Influenza; infectious mononucleosis, caused by the Epstein-Barr virus; meningitis; and colds are among the diseases that can
be passed by kissing or drinking after others.

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com